Cydia

This one comes not from the rumor mill but directly from Google Chairman Eric Schmidt's mouth. The Internet search giant is planning to launch an Android-powered "Nexus" tablet within the first half of 2012 to challenge Apple's dominant iPad in the increasingly competitive tablet wars.

For now, Schmidt will only confess that the release will be "a tablet of the highest quality." Of course, we've heard similar (although indirect) promises from Google and its partners before, namely prior to the early 2011 release of the Android-powered Motorola Xoom.

In retrospect, the Xoom didn't rock the tablet market by any stretch of the imagination. And the iPad's dominant share of the tablet market hasn't been diminished much despite taking on all comers over the last twelve months. But if Google is poised to release what is expected to be the first official Nexus tablet, it could be somewhat of a game-changer, especially if the device lives up to the hype of being "the highest quality."

“Steve Jobs was the Michelangelo of our time,” Schmidt reportedly told an Italian publication. “[He] realized the revolutionary potential of the tablet and has created an amazing product like the iPad.” However, “our companies compete” he added. “It is capitalism.”

This is one product where I'm amazed that the competitors are trying to compete with equal pricing (assuming the Google tablet will be priced the same as the iPad). The primary reason people go Windows over Mac OSX is because a PC is less than half the cost.

It'd be like Ford trying to price their cars the same as a BMW and expecting to make a dent in the market.

This is one product where I'm amazed that the competitors are trying to compete with equal pricing (assuming the Google tablet will be priced the same as the iPad). The primary reason people go Windows over Mac OSX is because a PC is less than half the cost.

It'd be like Ford trying to price their cars the same as a BMW and expecting to make a dent in the market.

Exactly! The tablets that are competing are priced much cheaper. A lot of people don't really need as much as the iPad offers, to price something less and still offer close to as much would be the key